Hand-held communication devices are increasingly being configured to incorporate touchscreen interfaces. However, such interfaces are two-dimensional and thus limited. For example, the typical touchscreen interfaces used in mobile telephones, palmtop computers or personal digital assistants (PDAs) generally require two hands to operate, and also require that the user be viewing the screen during input. Such interfaces are generally not universal, but are instead specific and unique to the associated device, and thus each device requires its own separate interface. Users are therefore currently forced to learn and memorize a variety of different interfaces for all of the communication devices they possess. Moreover, touchscreens and other similar interfaces are vulnerable to breakage or misuse. Other conventional communication device interfaces, such as those involving keyboards, keypads, or other arrangements of buttons, can be similarly problematic.
Some hand-held communication devices have interfaces that utilize haptic feedback. One example of a device of this type is described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0033617, entitled “Haptic User Interface.”
A wide variety of other types of interface devices are known in the art. These include, for example, universal remote control devices that can be configured to send appropriate commands to control several different devices or systems, such as televisions, video recorders, stereos, MP3 players, appliances, etc. However, such devices are generally implemented as stand-alone remote controls for in-home use, and are not easily incorporated into hand-held communication devices that support other functionality, such as the above-noted mobile telephones, palmtop computers or PDAs. In addition, existing universal remote control devices are generally limited to common two-dimensional button control arrangements with no feedback from the controlled device or system.